


Bad Hair Day

by thewriter



Category: Demi Lovato (Musician), X Factor (US) RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 09:06:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12229812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewriter/pseuds/thewriter
Summary: Demi reflects on a bad performance





	Bad Hair Day

Demi knew from the minute she opened her mouth something was wrong. She had barely gotten the first line of "Neon Lights" out of her mouth when she realized something was off. The crowd and noise overwhelmed her and she could barely hear herself above everything; she heard the dips in her own voice that told her she was off pitch.

Through the semidarkness and the lights in the smoke she walked. She walked carefully remembering Ellona's slip the last time they had fog on stage. She walked down from the level part of the stage down the steps towards the judges table where Kelly, Paulina and Simon were watching, Demi hoped none of them heard her mistakes but figured they couldn't over all the noise but to her she still heard every error, every mistake that made finishing the song that much harder.

Once Demi hit the chorus she began dancing, the dancers (half a dozen shirtless guys) moved around her and between that and the noise her head swam mindlessly. In her ear her in-ear slipped, she heard static instead of music and was overwhelmed by another rush of noise, another few seconds where she couldn't hear herself and whatever she could hear felt disjointed and off pitch. Just as the lights switched into blacklight she worked quickly switching her microphone to her other hand to reposition the ear monitor, the low light making things that much more difficult.

As the song ended the last chorus the steam vents at the front of the stage erupted, the warm air blew against her face disorienting her slightly. Demi felt her hair blow back from her face and by the time the music slowed down she knew her hair was a mess… And she still had half a show to do, she couldn't go back on camera looking like this.

"Be still my heart cause it's freaking out." She mumbled as she finished the song, grateful for the darkness that was hiding most of the malfunction with her hair, but even still the way the vent had upset her hair was fairly noticeable. At least Simon wasn't laughing at her, but instead he was smiling, that smile he wore when he was particularly happy or proud about something and she knew that extended to her not just his contestants.

If she had been one of her contestants she was sure she had just blown her performance; she wasn't even listening as Mario rattled on about her tour beginning in February, she faked a smile the knew there was no way anybody believed it. Anybody watching could see she wasn't happy with the performance at all.

As soon as the camera cut, Demi dashed off stage immediately returning to the judges table. Thankfully at the moment Simon was occupied and he didn't say anything. Finally she let her guard down, the facade she had been keeping up for the past 3 1/2 minutes.

"I sucked!" She blubbered as she collapsed in Paulina's arms, "my ear piece is crap and my hair looks like shit!"

"Now everyone has bad days…" Kelly murmured who had put another soothing arm around Demi's shoulders.

"Not me-not now." Demi mumbled as she hiccupped before it dissolved in a strangled sob all while attempting to straighten her hair which was hopelessly tousled and tangled.  
"If-if I was competing Simon would kick me off the show!" Demi ranted as she continued to cry into Paulina's shoulder.

"Nonsense." Simon cut in, "that's ridiculous sweetheart and you know it." Then his expression softened and he gave her a warm smile.

"Simon's right," Paulina cut in softly, her accent warm and gentle, "that's ridiculous. Maybe it wasn't your best, but no one blames you for that… Everyone has bad days, even you chica, but you can't let that stop you. What kind of message is that going to send to Ellona and Rion? "

Demi sniffled and nodded knowing her friend was right.

"Come on, let's fix you up." Paulina said soothingly, "dry your eyes…" Then Paulina turned around, whispered something to Simon, who nodded as Paulina and Kelly escorted Demi off the set in the direction of her dressing room.

As soon as the door of her dressing room shut behind her, Demi wanted to scream, she wanted to completely redo the performance she had just done. Her crying had stopped to occasional sniffles and she had fallen into a sullen silence and sat stoically while Paulina fixed her hair and Kelly attempted to clean up the mess that was her makeup.

There was a knock on the door.

"Five minutes!" One of the crew members interrupted.

"Be right there!" Kelly yelled as she carefully reapplied Demi's lipstick and tucked a strand of her blue hair behind her ear.

"There," she looks satisfied, "that's better. Now let's get out there you got a girl depending on you."

When the three of them returned to the panel Simon looked up, smiled when he saw Demi, and nodded as they sat back down. By then Mario was getting ready to go back on the air, but for now Demi was as ready as she could be. The makeup couldn't disguise her puffy eyes and red nose, she could blow her nose a couple of times during a commercial break, but it would take some time for her pride to heal, and there was no quick fix for that.


End file.
